By John Howell
The long legal saga of Patrick Evans Clark closed another chapter Tuesday when a First District Panola County jury found him guilty of capital murder in the 1998 death of his girlfriend.
Clark pled guilty in 1999 for the shooting death of Charlean Means and was sentenced as an habitual offender to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Clark, citing ineffective counsel and alleging legal missteps, has filed multiple appeals since his sentencing. All were unsuccessful, but a retroactive change in the law in 2011 forced Clark’s original indictment to be set aside, Panola County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Barry Thompson said.

Thompson presented the evidence to a grand jury in 2012 that brought a new indictment against Clark for the 1998 murder.

The new trial began Monday in Sardis when about 70 prospective jurors responded to summonses for service.

Missing were some of the key players in the original investigation and Clark’s arrest, most notably the late Sheriff David Bryan who died in 2005.

The prosecution by District Attorney John Champion and assistant District Attorney Jay Hale relied heavily on testimony of Craig Sheley who had been the sheriff’s department’s chief investigator in 1998.

Hale questioned Sheley extensively on Monday afternoon about what he found when he responded to the shooting scene at Means’ mobile home on Tom Floyd Road near Como in the early morning hours of August 27, 1998.

The prosecutor presented multiple photographs from the crime scene that Sheley confirmed as having taken showing the victim’s body, a television that had been hit by a blast from a shotgun and a door that had been knocked loose from its hinges.

Public defender Tommy Defer, representing Clark, questioned Sheley about the number of bystanders present when he arrived at the Means home.

“So when you got there, there were bystanders there?” Defer asked Sheley.
“Yessir.”

“If somebody went into the house before you got there and changed things around, it would alter the scene, right?” Defer asked.

Clark, testifying in his own defense, offered the most lengthy testimony, describing a tumultuous relationship with Means that often resulted in arguments. He said that Means’ son, Tony, who lived at the home, resented his presence there.

“Charlean would tell me one thing; then go back and tell her family something different,” he said.

Clark said that he had agreed to leave the premises and was in the process of gathering his belongings on the night Means was killed, making several trips there during late evening August 26 into the morning hours of August 27, 1998.

Clark said that on his final trip he intended to retrieve three guns that he had put inside the house and knocked on the door for five minutes before letting himself in with his key.

When he went inside, he picked up a shotgun that he kept behind the door and was attempting to remove his microwave and freezer when something hit his arm.

Clark said he looked to see that Tony Means had thrown an ashtray and said that Means grabbed his gun, which discharged, striking a television set.

Clark said that he turned around to flee the home and threw the shotgun over his shoulder as he ran. It discharged, firing behind him as he fled out the door, Clark said.

As he fled, he heard two or three more shots fired inside the home.

“This spooked me; I felt like it was in my best interest to leave,” Clark said. He then drove to Senatobia, he said.

“So when you shot, Miss Wren was behind you?” Clark’s attorney asked.

“Yes, I was in the process of leaving. I did not murder her,” Clark replied.

“I’ve been doing this 22 years, and I’ve heard some whoppers in my day, but you have just moved to the top of the list,” District Attorney Champion exclaimed as he began the state’s cross examination of Clark.

Champion sparred with Clark throughout the cross examination, asking him if Sheley and the other state witnesses had lied and asking him if the statements he had given to investigators at the time were wrong.

Under redirect questioning, Defer asked, “Did you go there with the intention of killing Miss Wren?”

Clark said he did not.

Other defense witnesses included a man for whom Clark had worked as a mechanic, a friend called to testify about his knowledge of the couple’s relationship and Clark’s mother.

Jurors began deliberation about 10:12 a.m. Tuesday and returned in less than an hour with a verdict of guilty of capital murder.

“You took all I had, man, for no reason,” Tony Means said in an impact statement prior to sentencing. “You shot my mom in cold blood; you don’t even treat an animal like that.”

Judge Jimmy McClure said that the sentence of life without parole would be administered. The final pronouncement of sentence was scheduled for Thursday morning but was delayed because of the weather.